Another Newbie building & outfitting a shop.
Introduction
I am glad to find such a great place to mull over woodwroking ideas. I have been locked in a construction phase for several years now. Constructed a building to do dog training in, finished a basement, finished a play/study/multimedia room for my daughter, storage building, chicken house...Now I think its time to start building shelves, cabinets and furniture.
My shop Plan
My "shop" has been an unfinshed storage bin for construction materials and tools. I am in the process of reworking this 15.5 X 20 room into a real functional work shop. Just off this room I have another smaller room that was serving as a materials storage room. As the construction materials got used up, my wife slyly began to fill the gaps with other junk that I am now trying to relocate. Just off my shop there is a covered patio, with the house on two sides and a concrete wall backed with dirt on a third side.
I am setting up my rough sawing (12" mitre saw & sawing rig, old rough bench, saw horses and a painting/sanding etc table) on the concrete floor of the patio. I hope that moving the dustier work to a semi outdoor area will help me get by a little longer without a true dust collecting system.
Dilemmas
I have a bunch of tools, but most of them are geared for construction not wood working. I bought a double vise workbench and I have some pretty good hand tools which I upgraded over Christmas. I think my greatest weakness is the lack of a table saw capable of handling large wood and panels. My greatest challenge is all those tools, screws, nails etc. without good places to store them. I have a couple over flowing metal shelves and a couple particle board storage cabinets that may not be strong enough to hold the weight of my materials and tools. I am currently covering the stud walls with 3/8 plywood ( I had some of this on hand), two walls are concrete (basement). I want to make wall and base cabinets for this shop ASAP. I am thinking about running 220 to one wall before I finish it.
I have been reading all the posts on table saws with great interest. I was thinking about trying to sneak by with a table mount table saw (building a work station around it) but my reading has about convinced me that I should go ahead and get a contractor or cabinet saw. I was checking out the Powermatic 1791227K Model 64 10" Artisan, left tilt table saws that I see such great internet deals on but The Grizzly 1023SL Cabinet saw sure seems to have a great number of strong followers.
I am wondering if a novice planning to build a bunch of shelves and cabinets in the near future can justify the Grizzly? I am pretty good at cutting plywood with a skill saw. I suspect that building all of the European style cabinet bases I am planning on would be an exercise in futility without a good table saw though.
One other thing, I am on 12 acres covered in timber. I always seem to have a nice hardwood or two or 6 that have to come down. I sure would like to turn some of it into boards. I guess my ancient 12 " Inca band saw is not going to "cut" it.
Welcome Mike, and Some Thoughts
Welcome to the Creek Mike. As you already know, this is a wonderful place to learn.
As far as your "dilemmas", there are several ways to go. If you just want to get organized and build some shop cabinets, then purchase a Festool circular saw with a guide rail system. Everyone here that has one really seems to like them and they seem plenty accurate for large sheet handling. By using a sacrificial table to support the plywood, you can make a lot of cuts fairly quickly. When you get the money, go and buy the table saw. The festool will still be there, and I think you will end up using it more than you think...even with the TS.
Rather than try to deal with the dust by moving it outside, consider a dust collector as one of your first purchases. There is no sense in ruining your health to enjoy a hobby! I built a cyclone and it was the best thing I ever did! You could get a bag unit, but get upgraded bags.
For case work...look for the best deal you can find on a Kreg pocket jig, (get the complete set-up). You will be amazed at how fast your cabinets will go together.
Because of your hardwood supply, next, I would save the money for a high quality bandsaw...Minimax comes to mind. Then, consider a planer and jointer. Combo units are a good bet since you have limited space. With a TS, BS, planer and jointer, with the hand tools you already have, you are in business! Then you can add stuff based on what you want to do...like a router table or shaper, maybe a lathe... the possibilities are endless.....OH MY!
I started off with all craftsman stuff (10" table saw, chop saw, routers) and they served me well for many years and I made a lot of good stuff with them. Over the years, I upgraded slowly, but never compromising in quality. Even if I had to wait and save for the right tool (always getting the best I could afford) it was all worth it.
Just my 2 cents.
Have fun.
Jay
TS takes up more space than a Festool?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Pellow
"I am getting a cabinet table saw (a General-650), but I never again plan to struggle with trying to cut sheat goods on a stationary saw. It is just so much easier and more accurate to use a Guided Circular Saw System (such as the Festool that you have mentioned or such as the EZ Smart System, or such as a good home made guide). Have you considered the fact that you require twice the space to process sheet goods with a stationary saw as you do with a moving saw?"
Hi Frank, thanks for the input.
I am not sure I follow your logic "twice the space to process sheet goods with a stationary saw". I need the enclosed storage space in the cabinets, so the way I am figuring it I am not losing any floor space if I use those cabinets as feed tables for my saw. Once the cabinets, shelves, drill press, router table, work bench, band saw get placed, I am hard pressed to find a place to set up saw horses with a reinforced 4'X8' cutting table on it.
Maybe I am missing something here but my experience cutting 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 plywood with a guide has been that the plywood warps out of shape unless it has support under it. The Festool demos I saw seemed to deal with this by placing the plywood on a "sacrificial" table top, covering a rigid table top. The saw was plunged just through the panel barely touching the sacrificial top. For this to work I imagine the cutting surface has to be pretty level or the saw blade want penetrate all the way through the panel in spots.
[COLOR=Blue]You mentioned an EZ Smart sawing outfits, a link would be helpful, but I will see what yahoo turns up.
Thanks for the Ez Smart lead
I just made my bid. Do you know if this is a used system or one donated by the company?
Combo Cabinets and Schutzhund
After checking out all the shop projects posted here I am embarrassed to post my tiny little project. I am thinking that I need to reclaim the small room adjoining my shop, its only 14 by 11 but it gets me up to around 450. If I enclose my patio area I can get another 200, might have to share that with some dogs though. I am thinking hard on that cabinet saw. I just placed a bid on a Ez Smart at the auction too. The Ez Smart does not appear to be as sophisticated as the Festool but the price is much better and I doubt that its accuracy would suffer much. It can also use the new circular saw I just bought.
Schutzhund, off topic
Actually Schutzhund was created as a temperament and breed test in Germany for German Shepherds, to improve the breed. Other dogs are allowed to compete in schutzhand trials but the German GSD's are bred for it and usually do better.
Schutzhund as a breed test may indicate that a dog has the potential for police work. Unfortunately police departments have often bought Schutzhund titled dogs thinking they were trained for "police work" when in fact the training is at best a foundation for a street K9.